17. Who are (or were) the major artists and writers?
We are a country with a history of 2500 years (Persia), So we have many writers, poets and scientists from the previous centuries. I think the most famous poets are Molana and Ferdowsi. From the scientists we can mention Khayyam and Razi (discoverer of Alcohol). And about the contemporary artists, I can mention Mohsen Makhmalbaf (film director) and Shamloo.

Hey ! There are many people I can mention but I think they are not famous outside Iran. And keep in mind, Persia was one of the largest emperatories in the ancient times so our territory was much larger than this days. So many people start to argue if Molana was an Iranian or Turkish, if Bidel was Iranian or Afghan, etc. I do not argue about this, Iran was a big territory those days but it is much smaller these days. You can consider Molana as a Turk, Bidel as a Afghan and ... :)

18. What kind of music is popular at this time? Who is the major pop star or movie star at the present time?
We have two kind of music here: legal and illegal !
Every album has to have a license. You can not publish a song without a license from the government ! So we have two kind of music: internal (legal) and imported (mainly from Los Angeles). Many people listen to Imported POP music and some people like traditional Iranian music. Most famous traditional singer is Shajarian and some of the popular pop stars are Dariush and Googoosh.

19. How Patriotic are you about your country?
Not that much. I consider myself as an Internationalist. I love human race; with any gender, any color and in any country but I work in my country because I know the culture, the language and because it need more work :)
There is proverb in Farsi which says "Art is in the hands of Iranians" and there are many other Patriotic sayings but I am sure every culture and every country has it's own great poets, highlights and etc. The only point is that we have to study about them.


20. If you did not live in your country, where would you want to live?
I have just seen some counties and I do not know about all the world. But I really loved Netherlands (Thank you all guys there in Netherlands!). But do not miss understand me. I am glad that I have born in Iran because I know what I have to do here. It is easy to step for human rights in Iran; You easily will know what is right and what is wrong and what has to be done. Deciding what to do is much more difficult in an calm, peaceful country.